English

Measurement of $e^+e^-$ Momentum and Angular Distributions from Linearly Polarized Photon Collisions

Nuclear Experiment 2021-08-05 v2
Authors: STAR Collaboration , M. S. Abdallah , B. E. Aboona , J. Adam , L. Adamczyk , J. R. Adams , J. K. Adkins , G. Agakishiev , I. Aggarwal , M. M. Aggarwal , Z. Ahammed , I. Alekseev , D. M. Anderson , A. Aparin , E. C. Aschenauer , M. U. Ashraf , F. G. Atetalla , A. Attri , G. S. Averichev , V. Bairathi , W. Baker , J. G. Ball Cap , K. Barish , A. Behera , R. Bellwied , P. Bhagat , A. Bhasin , J. Bielcik , J. Bielcikova , I. G. Bordyuzhin , J. D. Brandenburg , A. V. Brandin , I. Bunzarov , X. Z. Cai , H. Caines , M. Calderón de la Barca Sánchez , D. Cebra , I. Chakaberia , P. Chaloupka , B. K. Chan , F-H. Chang , Z. Chang , N. Chankova-Bunzarova , A. Chatterjee , S. Chattopadhyay , D. Chen , J. Chen , J. H. Chen , X. Chen , Z. Chen , J. Cheng , M. Chevalier , S. Choudhury , W. Christie , X. Chu , H. J. Crawford , M. Csanád , M. Daugherity , T. G. Dedovich , I. M. Deppner , A. A. Derevschikov , A. Dhamija , L. Di Carlo , L. Didenko , P. Dixit , X. Dong , J. L. Drachenberg , E. Duckworth , J. C. Dunlop , N. Elsey , J. Engelage , G. Eppley , S. Esumi , O. Evdokimov , A. Ewigleben , O. Eyser , R. Fatemi , F. M. Fawzi , S. Fazio , P. Federic , J. Fedorisin , C. J. Feng , Y. Feng , P. Filip , E. Finch , Y. Fisyak , A. Francisco , C. Fu , L. Fulek , C. A. Gagliardi , T. Galatyuk , F. Geurts , N. Ghimire , A. Gibson , K. Gopal , X. Gou , D. Grosnick , A. Gupta , A. I. Hamad , A. Hamed , Y. Han , S. Harabasz , M. D. Harasty , J. W. Harris , H. Harrison , S. He , W. He , X. H. He , Y. He , S. Heppelmann , S. Heppelmann , N. Herrmann , E. Hoffman , L. Holub , Y. Hu , H. Huang , H. Z. Huang , S. L. Huang , T. Huang , X. Huang , Y. Huang , T. J. Humanic , G. Igo , D. Isenhower , W. W. Jacobs , C. Jena , A. Jentsch , Y. Ji , J. Jia , K. Jiang , X. Ju , E. G. Judd , S. Kabana , M. L. Kabir , S. Kagamaster , D. Kalinkin , K. Kang , D. Kapukchyan , K. Kauder , H. W. Ke , D. Keane , A. Kechechyan , M. Kelsey , Y. V. Khyzhniak , D. P. Kikoła , C. Kim , B. Kimelman , D. Kincses , I. Kisel , A. Kiselev , S. R. Klein , A. G. Knospe , H. S. Ko , L. Kochenda , L. K. Kosarzewski , L. Kramarik , P. Kravtsov , L. Kumar , S. Kumar , R. Kunnawalkam Elayavalli , J. H. Kwasizur , R. Lacey , S. Lan , J. M. Landgraf , J. Lauret , A. Lebedev , R. Lednicky , J. H. Lee , Y. H. Leung , C. Li , C. Li , W. Li , X. Li , Y. Li , X. Liang , Y. Liang , R. Licenik , T. Lin , Y. Lin , M. A. Lisa , F. Liu , H. Liu , H. Liu , P. Liu , T. Liu , X. Liu , Y. Liu , Z. Liu , T. Ljubicic , W. J. Llope , R. S. Longacre , E. Loyd , N. S. Lukow , X. F. Luo , L. Ma , R. Ma , Y. G. Ma , N. Magdy , D. Mallick , S. Margetis , C. Markert , H. S. Matis , J. A. Mazer , N. G. Minaev , S. Mioduszewski , B. Mohanty , M. M. Mondal , I. Mooney , D. A. Morozov , A. Mukherjee , M. Nagy , J. D. Nam , Md. Nasim , K. Nayak , D. Neff , J. M. Nelson , D. B. Nemes , M. Nie , G. Nigmatkulov , T. Niida , R. Nishitani , L. V. Nogach , T. Nonaka , A. S. Nunes , G. Odyniec , A. Ogawa , S. Oh , V. A. Okorokov , B. S. Page , R. Pak , J. Pan , A. Pandav , A. K. Pandey , Y. Panebratsev , P. Parfenov , B. Pawlik , D. Pawlowska , C. Perkins , L. Pinsky , R. L. Pintér , J. Pluta , B. R. Pokhrel , G. Ponimatkin , J. Porter , M. Posik , V. Prozorova , N. K. Pruthi , M. Przybycien , J. Putschke , H. Qiu , A. Quintero , C. Racz , S. K. Radhakrishnan , N. Raha , R. L. Ray , R. Reed , H. G. Ritter , M. Robotkova , O. V. Rogachevskiy , J. L. Romero , D. Roy , L. Ruan , J. Rusnak , A. K. Sahoo , N. R. Sahoo , H. Sako , S. Salur , J. Sandweiss , S. Sato , W. B. Schmidke , N. Schmitz , B. R. Schweid , F. Seck , J. Seger , M. Sergeeva , R. Seto , P. Seyboth , N. Shah , E. Shahaliev , P. V. Shanmuganathan , M. Shao , T. Shao , A. I. Sheikh , D. Y. Shen , S. S. Shi , Y. Shi , Q. Y. Shou , E. P. Sichtermann , R. Sikora , M. Simko , J. Singh , S. Singha , M. J. Skoby , N. Smirnov , Y. Söhngen , W. Solyst , P. Sorensen , H. M. Spinka , B. Srivastava , T. D. S. Stanislaus , M. Stefaniak , D. J. Stewart , M. Strikhanov , B. Stringfellow , A. A. P. Suaide , M. Sumbera , B. Summa , X. M. Sun , X. Sun , Y. Sun , Y. Sun , B. Surrow , D. N. Svirida , Z. W. Sweger , P. Szymanski , A. H. Tang , Z. Tang , A. Taranenko , T. Tarnowsky , J. H. Thomas , A. R. Timmins , D. Tlusty , T. Todoroki , M. Tokarev , C. A. Tomkiel , S. Trentalange , R. E. Tribble , P. Tribedy , S. K. Tripathy , T. Truhlar , B. A. Trzeciak , O. D. Tsai , Z. Tu , T. Ullrich , D. G. Underwood , I. Upsal , G. Van Buren , J. Vanek , A. N. Vasiliev , I. Vassiliev , V. Verkest , F. Videbæk , S. Vokal , S. A. Voloshin , F. Wang , G. Wang , J. S. Wang , P. Wang , Y. Wang , Y. Wang , Z. Wang , J. C. Webb , P. C. Weidenkaff , L. Wen , G. D. Westfall , H. Wieman , S. W. Wissink , J. Wu , J. Wu , Y. Wu , B. Xi , Z. G. Xiao , G. Xie , W. Xie , H. Xu , N. Xu , Q. H. Xu , Y. Xu , Z. Xu , Z. Xu , C. Yang , Q. Yang , S. Yang , Y. Yang , Z. Ye , Z. Ye , L. Yi , K. Yip , Y. Yu , H. Zbroszczyk , W. Zha , C. Zhang , D. Zhang , J. Zhang , S. Zhang , S. Zhang , X. P. Zhang , Y. Zhang , Y. Zhang , Y. Zhang , Z. J. Zhang , Z. Zhang , Z. Zhang , J. Zhao , C. Zhou , X. Zhu , M. Zurek , M. Zyzak
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Abstract

The Breit-Wheeler process which produces matter and anti-matter from photon collisions is investigated experimentally through the observation of 6085 exclusive electron-positron pairs in ultra-peripheral Au+Au collisions at sNN=200\sqrt{s_{_{NN}}}=200 GeV. The measurements reveal a large fourth-order angular modulation of cos⁡4Δϕ=(16.8±2.5)%\cos{4\Delta\phi}=(16.8\pm2.5)\% and smooth invariant mass distribution absent of vector mesons (ϕ\phi, ω\omega and ρ\rho) at the experimental limit of ≤0.2%\le 0.2\% of the observed yields. The differential cross section as a function of e+e−e^+e^- pair transverse momentum P⊥P_\perp peaks at low value with ⟨P⊥2⟩=38.1±0.9\sqrt{ \langle P_\perp^2 \rangle } = 38.1\pm0.9 MeV and displays a significant centrality dependence. These features are consistent with QED calculations for the collision of linearly polarized photons quantized from the extremely strong electromagnetic fields generated by the highly charged Au nuclei at ultra-relativistic speed. The experimental results have implications for vacuum birefringence and for mapping the magnetic field which is important for emergent QCD phenomena.

Keywords

breit-wheeler process ultra-peripheral collisions electron-positron pairs linearly polarized photons qed vacuum birefringence

Cite

@article{arxiv.1910.12400,
  title  = {Measurement of $e^+e^-$ Momentum and Angular Distributions from Linearly Polarized Photon Collisions},
  author = {STAR Collaboration and M. S. Abdallah and B. E. Aboona and J. Adam and L. Adamczyk and J. R. Adams and J. K. Adkins and G. Agakishiev and I. Aggarwal and M. M. Aggarwal and Z. Ahammed and I. Alekseev and D. M. Anderson and A. Aparin and E. C. Aschenauer and M. U. Ashraf and F. G. Atetalla and A. Attri and G. S. Averichev and V. Bairathi and W. Baker and J. G. Ball Cap and K. Barish and A. Behera and R. Bellwied and P. Bhagat and A. Bhasin and J. Bielcik and J. Bielcikova and I. G. Bordyuzhin and J. D. Brandenburg and A. V. Brandin and I. Bunzarov and X. Z. Cai and H. Caines and M. Calderón de la Barca Sánchez and D. Cebra and I. Chakaberia and P. Chaloupka and B. K. Chan and F-H. Chang and Z. Chang and N. Chankova-Bunzarova and A. Chatterjee and S. Chattopadhyay and D. Chen and J. Chen and J. H. Chen and X. Chen and Z. Chen and J. Cheng and M. Chevalier and S. Choudhury and W. Christie and X. Chu and H. J. Crawford and M. Csanád and M. Daugherity and T. G. Dedovich and I. M. Deppner and A. A. Derevschikov and A. Dhamija and L. Di Carlo and L. Didenko and P. Dixit and X. Dong and J. L. Drachenberg and E. Duckworth and J. C. Dunlop and N. Elsey and J. Engelage and G. Eppley and S. Esumi and O. Evdokimov and A. Ewigleben and O. Eyser and R. Fatemi and F. M. Fawzi and S. Fazio and P. Federic and J. Fedorisin and C. J. Feng and Y. Feng and P. Filip and E. Finch and Y. Fisyak and A. Francisco and C. Fu and L. Fulek and C. A. Gagliardi and T. Galatyuk and F. Geurts and N. Ghimire and A. Gibson and K. Gopal and X. Gou and D. Grosnick and A. Gupta and A. I. Hamad and A. Hamed and Y. Han and S. Harabasz and M. D. Harasty and J. W. Harris and H. Harrison and S. He and W. He and X. H. He and Y. He and S. Heppelmann and S. Heppelmann and N. Herrmann and E. Hoffman and L. Holub and Y. Hu and H. Huang and H. Z. Huang and S. L. Huang and T. Huang and X. Huang and Y. Huang and T. J. Humanic and G. Igo and D. Isenhower and W. W. Jacobs and C. Jena and A. Jentsch and Y. Ji and J. Jia and K. Jiang and X. Ju and E. G. Judd and S. Kabana and M. L. Kabir and S. Kagamaster and D. Kalinkin and K. Kang and D. Kapukchyan and K. Kauder and H. W. Ke and D. Keane and A. Kechechyan and M. Kelsey and Y. V. Khyzhniak and D. P. Kikoła and C. Kim and B. Kimelman and D. Kincses and I. Kisel and A. Kiselev and S. R. Klein and A. G. Knospe and H. S. Ko and L. Kochenda and L. K. Kosarzewski and L. Kramarik and P. Kravtsov and L. Kumar and S. Kumar and R. Kunnawalkam Elayavalli and J. H. Kwasizur and R. Lacey and S. Lan and J. M. Landgraf and J. Lauret and A. Lebedev and R. Lednicky and J. H. Lee and Y. H. Leung and C. Li and C. Li and W. Li and X. Li and Y. Li and X. Liang and Y. Liang and R. Licenik and T. Lin and Y. Lin and M. A. Lisa and F. Liu and H. Liu and H. Liu and P. Liu and T. Liu and X. Liu and Y. Liu and Z. Liu and T. Ljubicic and W. J. Llope and R. S. Longacre and E. Loyd and N. S. Lukow and X. F. Luo and L. Ma and R. Ma and Y. G. Ma and N. Magdy and D. Mallick and S. Margetis and C. Markert and H. S. Matis and J. A. Mazer and N. G. Minaev and S. Mioduszewski and B. Mohanty and M. M. Mondal and I. Mooney and D. A. Morozov and A. Mukherjee and M. Nagy and J. D. Nam and Md. Nasim and K. Nayak and D. Neff and J. M. Nelson and D. B. Nemes and M. Nie and G. Nigmatkulov and T. Niida and R. Nishitani and L. V. Nogach and T. Nonaka and A. S. Nunes and G. Odyniec and A. Ogawa and S. Oh and V. A. Okorokov and B. S. Page and R. Pak and J. Pan and A. Pandav and A. K. Pandey and Y. Panebratsev and P. Parfenov and B. Pawlik and D. Pawlowska and C. Perkins and L. Pinsky and R. L. Pintér and J. Pluta and B. R. Pokhrel and G. Ponimatkin and J. Porter and M. Posik and V. Prozorova and N. K. Pruthi and M. Przybycien and J. Putschke and H. Qiu and A. Quintero and C. Racz and S. K. Radhakrishnan and N. Raha and R. L. Ray and R. Reed and H. G. Ritter and M. Robotkova and O. V. Rogachevskiy and J. L. Romero and D. Roy and L. Ruan and J. Rusnak and A. K. Sahoo and N. R. Sahoo and H. Sako and S. Salur and J. Sandweiss and S. Sato and W. B. Schmidke and N. Schmitz and B. R. Schweid and F. Seck and J. Seger and M. Sergeeva and R. Seto and P. Seyboth and N. Shah and E. Shahaliev and P. V. Shanmuganathan and M. Shao and T. Shao and A. I. Sheikh and D. Y. Shen and S. S. Shi and Y. Shi and Q. Y. Shou and E. P. Sichtermann and R. Sikora and M. Simko and J. Singh and S. Singha and M. J. Skoby and N. Smirnov and Y. Söhngen and W. Solyst and P. Sorensen and H. M. Spinka and B. Srivastava and T. D. S. Stanislaus and M. Stefaniak and D. J. Stewart and M. Strikhanov and B. Stringfellow and A. A. P. Suaide and M. Sumbera and B. Summa and X. M. Sun and X. Sun and Y. Sun and Y. Sun and B. Surrow and D. N. Svirida and Z. W. Sweger and P. Szymanski and A. H. Tang and Z. Tang and A. Taranenko and T. Tarnowsky and J. H. Thomas and A. R. Timmins and D. Tlusty and T. Todoroki and M. Tokarev and C. A. Tomkiel and S. Trentalange and R. E. Tribble and P. Tribedy and S. K. Tripathy and T. Truhlar and B. A. Trzeciak and O. D. Tsai and Z. Tu and T. Ullrich and D. G. Underwood and I. Upsal and G. Van Buren and J. Vanek and A. N. Vasiliev and I. Vassiliev and V. Verkest and F. Videbæk and S. Vokal and S. A. Voloshin and F. Wang and G. Wang and J. S. Wang and P. Wang and Y. Wang and Y. Wang and Z. Wang and J. C. Webb and P. C. Weidenkaff and L. Wen and G. D. Westfall and H. Wieman and S. W. Wissink and J. Wu and J. Wu and Y. Wu and B. Xi and Z. G. Xiao and G. Xie and W. Xie and H. Xu and N. Xu and Q. H. Xu and Y. Xu and Z. Xu and Z. Xu and C. Yang and Q. Yang and S. Yang and Y. Yang and Z. Ye and Z. Ye and L. Yi and K. Yip and Y. Yu and H. Zbroszczyk and W. Zha and C. Zhang and D. Zhang and J. Zhang and S. Zhang and S. Zhang and X. P. Zhang and Y. Zhang and Y. Zhang and Y. Zhang and Z. J. Zhang and Z. Zhang and Z. Zhang and J. Zhao and C. Zhou and X. Zhu and M. Zurek and M. Zyzak},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1910.12400},
  year   = {2021}
}

Comments

Keywords: Ultra-peripheral collisions, Breit-Wheeler process, vacuum birefringence, two-photon process, QED under extreme conditions, strong fields

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